Saturday, March 19, 2016

First Round Tournament Tidbits

There were 13 upsets in the First Round. That is tied for the most ever with 2001. It also matches the total First Round upsets from 2014 and 2015 combined.

Ten double-digit seeds won in the First Round. That breaks the old record 9 set in 2001 and also matched in 2012.

The average score in the First Round was 72.5. That is a significant increase from last year's 66.9. It is the highest scoring First Round since 1995 when the average was 72.7.

The 47-43 victory by Wisconsin over Pittsburgh was the 3rd lowest scoring game in the shot-clock era. The combined 90 points surpasses only 1999 Missouri State 43-32 victory over Wisconsin (75 points) and 1995 Princeton 43-41 victory over UCLA (84 points).

Kansas scored 105 points against Austin Peay. It was the first 100 point game in the NCAA Tournament since 2012 when Kentucky defeated Indiana 102-90 in the Sweet Sixteen. It is the longest span between 100 point games in tournament history since 1955 when Utah was the first team to score 100 points in a game.

Seven teams scored at least 90 points. It is the most teams to score 90 or more since 1998.

Kansas has won in the First Round for the 10th consecutive year. Here are the teams that have won a First Round game each of the past 3 tournaments.

Kansas 10

Gonzaga 8

North Carolina 6

Oregon 4

Wichita State 4

Kentucky 3

Villanova 3

Virginia 3

Wisconsin 3

The following teams lost in the First Round for the second consecutive year:

Baylor

Buffalo

Hampton

Purdue

Texas

Hawaii and Yale both won their first ever tournament games. Both teams were 0-4 all-time in the tournament before they won.

The following coaches won their first ever tournament games in the First Round.

Chris Beard, Arkansas-Little Rock (First game)

Ed Cooley, Providence (1-2)

Kermit Davis, Middle Tennessee State (1-3)

Eran Ganot, Hawaii (First game)

Greg Gard, Wisconsin (First game)

James Jones, Yale (First game)

Will Wade, VCU (First game)

Billy Kennedy of Texas A&M and his protege, Steve Prohm of Iowa State, were the only two coaches that had previously won a tournament game that won their first game with a new team.

The ACC has 6 win First Round games for the second consecutive year and the third time in conference history. The other time was in 2004. Only the Big East in 2008 and 2011 has had more with 7.

Indiana and Iowa are tied with the most teams winning First Round games with 3. It is the ninth time that Indiana has at least 3 teams advance to the Second Round. They had 4 in 1989 and 2003. It is the first time that Iowa has had 3 teams advance to the Second Round.

The following states have had at least one school win a First Round game for 10 or more consecutive years:

North Carolina 32 consecutive years (every year since field expanded to 64)

Kentucky 25

Ohio 22

Pennsylvania 18

Wisconsin 15

Washington 14

Kansas 11

The following states have had at least two schools win a First Round game for consecutive years:

Kansas 7 consecutive years

Indiana 2

Iowa 2

North Carolina 2

#2 Michigan State becomes the highest ranked team in the AP poll to ever lose in the First Round. The previous high was #3 Missouri in 2012. Michigan State was only the second #2 team to not be seeded #1. The other was Utah in 1997.

With Michigan State losing, this will now be the 50th time in 51 years that National Championship game will NOT be a match up of #1 and #2 teams in the final regular season AP Poll.